Turkish American Gezi Platform is starting off 2018 with an amazing documentary!Join us tonight, on January 24 to watch “Turkey on the Edge” by Imre Azem.

Turkey on the Edge (with English subtitles) documents the last five years of the Turkish state under an erosion of liberties and the consolidation of power. The documentary takes risks to give us a view from within a country struggling to find its own identity. Watch the trailer here.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Imre Azem will not be able to join us for Q&A session afterwards. However, we will use this time host an open forum, much like the ones that were prevalent during the beginning of Gezi.

Join us on August 9 at 7:00 pm for a panel with renowned artists Meltem Arıkan, Pınar Öğün and Memet Ali Alabora.

Following the 2013 Gezi Park protests in Istanbul, after their play "Mi Minör" was accused by government officials and pro-government media of being the “rehearsal” for the protests, writer Meltem Arikan, actor Pinar Ogun and director/actor Memet Ali Alabora left their home country and settled in the UK, where they continued to produce work for theatre. Their latest production “Enough is Enough”, a feminist theatre-gig, toured across Wales. The production has received praise from critics and audiences alike.

The team will share their unique story of how they had to leave Turkey, their experiences during the tour in Wales and their future projects.

With its focus on a single character, its emphasis on handheld camerawork and its realistic narrative, reinforced by the use of real workers and real locations, Zerre/The Particle explores the question of ‘existence’ through the story of an ordinary person. In a city full of unemployment, people, their troubles and lives, are they as mundane, haphazard and tiny as myriadly dispersed particles? Zerre portrays the formidable struggle of a family of three to survive when its only breadwinner, Zeynep, is unfairly dismissed. Zeynep shares a cramped home with her mother and daughter in a city where it’s impossible to find even the most menial work, so when the threatening landlord, Kudret, demands her rent arrears, she accepts a job outside the city and sets off on her way...Zerre won the Best First Film, the Best Director, the Best Art Director, and the Turkish Film Critics’ Association's Best Film Award in Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival in 2012.﻿﻿Now a little bit about LaborFest:﻿﻿Labor Fest is a month-long festival that commemorates the anniversary of the 1934 San Francisco General Strike and West Coast Maritime Strike. Make sure to check out rest of the LaborFest 2015 ﻿Schedule here﻿.The movie screening will be 100% free, but please RSVP through Eventbrite to reserve your seat.

San Francsico Main Library, located at 100 Larkin Street, is near BART and bus stations.

As always, the movie will have English subtitles. We are looking forward to seeing you!

2013 has been a year that brought global attention to Turkey's "others" as popular protests erupted throughout the country in early summer. But the mobilizations of the present moment both encapsulate and extend beyond Gezi Park. In this multi-disciplinary panel, four noted scholars will explore multiple facets of the summer Gezi protests; the Kurdish and the LGBT movements; and the broad possibilities, individually and collectively, of Turkey's pluralistic movements of resistance.

A public lecture by David Selim Sayers.David Selim Sayers joined San Francisco State University in 2013 to set up the university’s brand new program in Turkish Studies. He has lectured and written on the Gezi Park protests of 2013, Turkish Islamic news media, as well as gender in Ottoman and Turkish literature. Between the years of 2000 and 2010, he produced and presented a TV show on CNN Turk, wrote a weekly column for the newspaper Sabah, and was a DJ at various Turkish radio stations and live venues. Sayers is a founding editor of the Journal of Turkish Literature, published by Syracuse University Press.

Please join us on October 20th for this dynamic show presenting Mimar Sinan University’s never exhibited before Gezi Park photograph archive "Baykus'un GEZIsi", music shows from local talents, short movie screenings, and series of panel discussions focusing on the past, present and future of the movement. The panel will feature experts from a variety of disciplines including academics, economists, thought leaders and journalists from Turkey and SF Bay Area.

On May 31st, a peaceful sit-in took place at Gezi Park in Istanbul to protect it from a demolition and its development as a shopping mall. A brutal attack by the police on this small group of protesters triggered a series of massive anti-government protests all over Turkey. The violent crackdown of the police using pepper spray, tear gas and water cannons went on for days leading to hundreds of arrests, thousands of injuries, and the death of three citizens and a police officer.

A small sit-in at Gezi Park turned into a movement that inspired millions. Our exhibit will showcase a timeline of the protests, display photographs and footage depicting both the severity of the crackdown and the humorous resilience among the citizens of Turkey.

Please join us to experience the actual events of the Gezi Park Protests.